


your ivy grows (and now i'm covered in you)

by brazilianchild, mytearsricochet



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe - Everyone Lives/Nobody Dies, BISEXUAL LILY IS THRIVING, Enemies to Friends to Lovers, F/F, F/M, Fluff, Friends to Lovers, M/M, Mutual Pining, almost literally everyone is queer and we have no regrets, everyone is finding themselves but especially lily, they are literally all friends and have the cutest group
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-01-03
Updated: 2021-01-03
Packaged: 2021-03-13 17:49:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,854
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28532460
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/brazilianchild/pseuds/brazilianchild, https://archiveofourown.org/users/mytearsricochet/pseuds/mytearsricochet
Summary: Here's something Lily Evans positively knows: James Potter is a prat.Heres something everyone knows except Lily Evans: James Potter is hopelessly in love with her.Here’s something they don’t tell you but you find out pretty quickly: the real world sucks. College isn't what it is in the movies but the right friends (and lots of coffee) can save your life multiple times.But here’s the most important thing of them all, the one you find out only after some time: it's still the most fucking fun you've ever had in your entire life.
Relationships: Alice Longbottom/Frank Longbottom, James Potter/Lily Evans Potter, Marlene McKinnon/Dorcas Meadowes, Minor or Background Relationship(s), Sirius Black/Remus Lupin
Comments: 14
Kudos: 40





	your ivy grows (and now i'm covered in you)

**Author's Note:**

> Hey everyone!!
> 
> Me and Maria both started uni this year and we were complaining to each other about the lack of shows about college and how lately college au fics have been hitting differently so then we decided to say FUCK IT and write one ourselves. We've always helped each other with our individual works but this is the first that we've published that we truly wrote "together" so it should be fun.
> 
> This is purely self-indulgent and will probably be really fluffy (because let's be real we all need some fluff as therapy in our lives right now) so I hope you enjoy. 
> 
> Also, since we're both insane swifties and are still recovering from evermore, the chapter titles will all probably be Taylor Swift lyrics. This first one comes from "Champagne Problems."
> 
> \- liv

On that brisk October evening, Lily Evans was convinced she was properly, head-over-heels, in love.

Of course, that conviction changed that very same evening. But more on that later. 

Currently, Lily Evans was happily in love with Emmeline Vance, and she was getting ready for their date. They didn't get to do that often; dress all posh and go out to a fancy restaurant, which Lily would complain about because it was so expensive. But for Emmeline, her Em, Lily Evans knew she'd do anything.

Sometimes Lily couldn’t believe Emmeline chose her. Her perfect Em, so close to being an actual princess, chose to be with … with Lily. Lily, who was messier than most. Lily, who couldn’t even compare to what Emmeline actually deserved. 

For Lily, that had to be love. 

* * *

“You sure you don’t mind I can’t come tonight?” Lily asked as she leaned close to the mirror to put on lipstick. “I tried to get Em to move the reservation for tomorrow but she was strangely adamant.” 

Lily could see Mary waving her off through the mirror. Mary was already in full costume–she was going as Robin Sparkles, complete with bedazzled jean jacket and everything–and Lily had to admit it looked pretty good. She busied herself with setting up the stuff for her halloween party. “It’s fine, Lil. Don’t worry about it.”

Lily furrowed her eyebrows and stared at her through the mirror, “You’re acting suspiciously alright with all this.”

Mary shrugged, “There are things more important than parties.”

“You once threatened to kill Sirius with a candy cane when he mentioned he would leave your Christmas party an hour early,” Lily deadpanned.

“Maybe I’ve grown.”

“Bullshite.”

“Oh dear Lord. Just go to your stupid date and stop complaining, will you?”

Now that sounded more like Mary. Lily was still suspicious but Mary was almost impossible to break when it came to secrets and she was already running late.

“Alright fine,” she straightened her dress and turned around, “How do I look?”

Mary straightened to assess her outfit and gave her a nod of approval. “That green dress always looks stunning on you.”

“Thank you,” Lily said with a smile. She grabbed her purse and rushed to the door, “I have to go.” She kissed Mary on the cheek, “Hope everything goes well.”

“Good luck!”

Lily hesitated before closing the door, “What do you mean?”

Mary contained her wild grin and quickly slapped on a mask of innocence, “Nothing. Just go, will you! You’re late.”

“Right!” Lily shut the door and ran as much as she could in her heels.

They had started their second year of university a couple months ago and she still wasn’t used to living off-campus. Lily and Mary splurged on a flat that was a big change from the cramped dorm rooms they lived inside the castle for the first year. Everything was so much closer now that they lived in the city instead of at Hogwarts.

When Lily arrived at the restaurant, she wasn’t surprised to find Emmeline already at the table. Her blonde hair contrasted beautifully with the dark blue of her dress and Lily couldn’t help but smile at the look at her.

“Hello, I’m so sorry I’m late.” Emmeline stood up to greet her and Lily gave her a quick kiss before sitting down across from her. “You look stunning, Em.”

Emmeline reached over to grab Lily’s hand, “So do you.”

Lily looked around the restaurant, “This place is incredible.” She lowered her voice, “You sure we can afford this place?”

Emmeline shook her head, “Don’t worry about it. Tonight is on me.”

Emmeline came from a very rich family that gave her a trust fund larger than Lily could dream of. But still, they always split the bill.

“Wow. What’s the occasion?”

She shrugged and took a sip of her wine, “Nothing. I just want today to be special.”  
  
Lily raised an eyebrow but Emmeline quickly spoke before she could ask further, “Did you manage to finish your paper already?”

“Yes, finally. It only took about five coffees and three mental breakdowns but it’s done.” 

Lily was getting her degree in MBBS (Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery) which basically meant she never stopped studying. But she didn’t mind. She _chose_ this; she studied years for this.

Emmeline was a Liberal Arts major and found it fascinating the amount of workload Lily could juggle. But she was used to it, Lily had been focused like this since they started dating when they were fifteen. Nothing came before her studies.

Everything was going like their usual dates, except that Emmeline seemed a little more on edge than usual, when the waiter came by with two glasses of champagne.

Lily frowned, “We didn’t order this.”

“I did,” Emmeline said and took the glasses, “Thank you.”

As soon as the waiter disappeared, Lily leaned over to whisper harshly, “What the fuck, Em? You know I can’t afford champagne.”

“I told you it’s on me tonight.”

“And I’ve told _you_ a billion times that I don’t like it when you pay for everything.”

“Lil-”

“You always do this. Ever since we were teenagers you’ve never understood how money–”

“Lily.”

“–means something different to you than it does to me. I can’t go just splashing out on Dom Perignon every time I–”

_“Lily, just look at the goddamn glass will you?!”_

And that’s when Lily stopped and looked at what was sitting on the bottom of her glass. Something she was too caught up in her rant to notice.

A diamond ring. An _engagement_ ring.

This was the first time in a long time that Lily Evans felt truly speechless.

“Look,” Emmeline reached over for her hand and squeezed. Lily’s hand lay limp in her grasp. “I know we’re young. I know we’re still in uni and all that but I love you so damn much, Lily Evans. I don’t understand how anyone couldn’t.” 

Emmeline looked more nervous than Lily had ever seen her. Her eyes were wide and glassy and it looked like she had rehearsed this speech before tonight and Lily wanted to ease her anxiousness but all she could do was stare. 

“If you don’t want to get married right away I understand, I can wait. Consider this ring a promise that one day we’ll walk down the aisle and live together forever. You’re _it_ for me, Lily. You’re the one. You have been since you kissed me on the porch when we were fifteen and I don’t see the point in pretending that I want to be with anyone else ever again. So I guess what I’m trying to say with this long fucking speech is will you marry me, Lily Evans?”

There were a variety of things that Lily could’ve clung to in that speech. _Will you marry me?_ or _I don’t see the point in pretending that I want to be with anyone else ever again._

But the phrase that was bouncing around Lily’s head like a pinball machine was _You’re it for me. You’re the one._

“Um…”

_You’re it for me. You’re the one._

“I…um…” 

_You’re it for me. You’re the one._

Emmeline’s face fell the longer Lily didn’t speak. 

“Emmeline…I…”

The silence seemed too much for Emmeline and she filled it herself, “If you’re scared because we’re too young and in uni it’s like I said, we can wait.”

But it wasn’t because of that. Yes, they were too young and yes, Lily didn’t even think about marrying someone until she was well out of university but more importantly, the reason why Lily was scrambling for words to this insane proposal was because…Emmeline wasn’t _it._

She hadn’t known until that moment. Until Emmeline proposed and made it obvious that she wanted to spend the rest of her life with her that she realized that she didn’t feel the same way. She loved Emmeline. She knew that. But it didn’t feel like _the_ love. And suddenly this carefully crafted illusion of their five year relationship shattered before her eyes. 

It wasn’t enough and Lily realized it would never be enough.

She wasn’t _it_.

“No.”

Emmeline’s face twisted into an expression Lily never wanted to see in her life. Tears started to well up in Lily’s eyes and she clamped her hand over her mouth, “I’m so sorry, Em. I can’t marry you. Not now and not…I’m so sorry. I can’t…”

How could she tell her the truth about why she was saying no when the truth was something so horrible? Lily had no idea what to say. She could only feel an immense ache deep in her heart, about to overcome her fully.

She couldn’t face it. She couldn’t explain to Emmeline that she would never love her enough or that she had followed her to university for nothing. This was all for _nothing_. What an unspeakable thought. 

Before a proper tear could leave Lily’s eyes, she grabbed her purse and practically ran out of the restaurant.

The pavement was still soaked from the rain and Lily didn’t care because she took off her heels rather recklessly, letting the cold poison her blood as if she was not cold-blooded already for what she had just done to someone whom she loved more than anything in the world. 

Properly in love? More like properly fucked in the head, was she not? Her perfect Em. Their books, their talks, their fairy lights and their intimacy of being understood by one another. And now she’s ruined it all. Because Emmeline didn’t understand this time. Would she, ever again? Not even Lily understood this time. But she’s done it. Dropped another perfect thing in her life like it was glass. Lily tripped over her own feet just then and found herself simply wishing she fell because maybe then it’d be easier to just fall apart right now, right here. And maybe if she fell apart, she would find a reason. A reason Emmeline deserved.

She didn’t have a reason. She had _nothing_. 

And then before she knew it (before she could come up with anything or cry even) she was back at her building. She sighed as she climbed up the three flight of stairs barefoot. The elevator didn’t work and it made her feel like she was in an American sitcom sometimes but that didn’t compensate for how her thighs burned every time she went up those stairs no matter how often she did it.

She rubbed her temple when she finally made it. She wanted to crawl into her bed–her soft, warm, _dry_ bed _–_ with her fluffy blankets and teddy bears and fall into a deep sleep. She pushed open the door and was surprised to find it unlocked and that’s when she realized she’d forgotten a mild detail.

There was a massive Halloween party currently raging in her living room.

Lily blinked as she adjusted to the bright lights. “Monster Mash” was playing in the background and someone was taking a shot out of someone’s belly button on the table she usually takes her tea and it was all so fucking absurd. It was so in contrast with the night she had that Lily almost laughed. Almost _._

All expectations of just cuddling up in her bed and sleeping evaporated in an instant.

And then Mary caught her eye over the shoulder of a cute blonde who was chatting her up and she could practically hear her friend’s gasp. Mary all but shoved the guy aside as she rushed to meet Lily at the door.

“Oh my God! You’re here,” Mary squealed. “Show me the ring! I wanna see…” She trailed off when she grabbed Lily’s hand and saw the lack of a sparkling diamond on her finger. 

Lily couldn’t bring herself to explain. Her tongue felt like lead in her mouth and she could do nothing but watch as Mary’s eyes widened.

“Did I just spoil the surprise and she didn’t do it yet or…”

Lily’s vision got blurry as she nodded slightly, _“Or.”_

Mary was about to say something else when the other girls barged in to their conversation.

“Lil, you came!” Marlene said a little _too_ loud. The drink in her hand was obviously doing it’s job.

Dorcas gave an amused smirk as she put her arm around her girlfriend’s waist, “We didn’t think you were going to make it tonight.”

“Where’s Em?” Alice asked innocently.

Lily could feel herself breaking. All the emotions of tonight were being stopped from overflowing by a thin, _thin_ dam and one more wrong question and that dam would shatter and everything would come rushing out. She wasn’t ready to face the flood just yet.

If she wasn’t going to sleep then she needed a distraction.

She brushed her hair back, took a deep breath, and just spilled it all at once to get it over with, “Em proposed. I said no. We’re probably over now, but I don’t wanna talk about it. I want to drink and forget and _not_ talk about it tonight, alright?”

All four girls stared at her.

Alice cleared her throat, “Alright…we can do that.”

That seemed to snap the girls out of their trance. Marlene clapped her hands, “Something with vodka coming right up!”

“ _Lots_ of vodka,” Lily amended.

“Something with _lots of_ vodka coming right up,” Marlene corrected, “Come on, Dorcas.”

The two girls disappeared into the crowd and Lily bit her thumb nail as she waited.

“Alice, if you’re gonna stare at me like a kicked puppy all night I’m going to leave.”

The brunette jumped and covered her own cheeks in embarrassment, “Sorry, sorry. I’ll stop. It’s just–”

“I know.” Lily cut her off. “That’s why I’m not talking about it yet.”

Alice pursed her lips and nodded. Mary still hadn’t spoken since she found out.

Marlene appeared with two cups in her hands, “Here you go, Lil. One vodka–woah babes, maybe you should slow down.”

Lily didn’t listen as she finished the cup in one go. She could barely taste it but she could feel the burn in her throat. She ignored it. 

She handed Marlene the empty cup and took the other one.

“Okay, that was mine.”

Lily wiped her mouth when she finished the second one and handed it to Marlene who had her eyebrows raised. “Thank you, love.”  
  
“Oh wow. She’s already hit the ‘love’ drunk phase,” Dorcas said.

Lily shrugged and shook her hair out with her hand. “Yup. Now it’s time to dance. It’s fucking depressing to just stand here.”

She tossed the heels still in her hand in the hall corner before running towards the make-shift dance floor without another word.

The living room was filled with people she knew and she felt immediately lighter. Here she was dancing with her friends. Friends who didn’t know that she had just shattered her girlfriend’s heart into a billion pieces and left her standing there with an embarrassment of an explanation–nope, she wasn’t going there. She was going to dance.

She gave a yelp of surprise when someone grabbed her from behind and lifted her up. She collapsed into laughter when she was set on the ground and turned around to see a grinning Sirius looking down at her. He was dressed as he usually was except he had drawn around his lip (not on it, _around it)_ with lip liner and he had gotten fake bangs (which did not match his original hair color) over his forehead.

Lily laughed _hard_ at the ridiculous outfit. He posed dramatically and that made her laugh harder. “I’m Mick Jagger, baby.” 

He broke from his pose to smile and leaned over to yell over the music, “Didn’t think you were gonna grace us with your presence tonight.”

Lily resumed her horrible dancing and gave him a blinding smile. It was too bright. Too easy to smile after everything tonight.

“Couldn’t as well miss out on dancing to crappy music, could I?”

Sirius laughed, “Don’t think what you’re doing could even be classified as dancing.”

“Don’t ruin my fun, Sirius. Where’s the boyfriend?”

Sirius swept his eyes around the room as if he could see Remus’ head above all the mass of people, “Talking to one of his history major buddies. Where’s the girlfriend?”

Lily faltered in her dancing a bit but quickly recovered. “Out.” She replied bluntly. 

Sirius frowned slightly but before he could ask further, she grabbed his hand and pulled him further into the dance floor. “If you think my dancing is so terrible why don’t you show me how it’s done?”

“Come on Eileen” was playing and she knew he couldn’t resist. He grinned and twirled her around instead of answering.

She always loved dancing with Sirius. He loved making a show of it, dramatic as always. He was old-school no matter the situation and would put a hand on her hip and lead her around the room bumping into several people before they took the hint and cleared a space for them. 

He twirled her and dipped her and she laughed and forgot about the impending flood. 

When the music slowed down he slowed down as well, making their dancing almost comical. He picked up the pace as the music sped up as well until he started to practically drag her around in order to keep up the tempo. She was glad she’d ditched the heels or she would’ve twisted an ankle or something.

They finished the song with a final dip and Lily’s chest heaved up and down as she tried to catch her breath. Sirius grinned, satisfied he’d been able to show off his dancing skills. He straightened and brought her back up. 

He bowed and pressed a kiss to her hand with a “m’lady” and she laughed once more. 

“Thank you very much, good sir. Now the lady needs to rest.”

Lily collapsed to a chair near the drinks table and reached over to pour some rum and coke into a cup. She hated rum, but she couldn’t reach any other drinks without getting up and she couldn’t be bothered.

“Wow, Evans. That’s a shit ton of rum you got there.”

Lily jumped. She hadn’t noticed James Potter towering over her.

She scowled. On any other day, at any other time, she could handle James’ teasing. But not tonight. “Piss off, Potter.”

He only laughed and then took a seat on the empty chair next to her. “Who are you dressed as? Princess Margaret?”

She stared at him in confusion as she took a big sip, “What?”

His hand went straight to his hair as he scrambled to explain, “Because you know…the fancy dress and all the necklaces…” He sighed in defeat, “Sirius has been forcing us all to watch the Crown recently. He wants us to catch up so we can watch Princess Di.”

“Ahhhh. Well no, I actually didn’t come as anyone. It’s a long story…” Lily inched away to look him up and down, “And who are you meant to be?”

James raised an eyebrow, “Seriously? The Manchester United jersey and the sticker tattoos all over my arms didn’t give it away?”

Lily stared at him blankly.

“Oh dear Lord, Evans. I’ve taught you nothing. I’m David Beckham, obviously. I can’t believe–”

“Oh my God, is that a cat tattoo?!”

James stopped talking as Lily reached for his forearm and brought it to her lap. She brushed her finger against the little red cat amongst a sea of random drawings. 

“This is incredible. And so cute.”

James made a somewhat strangled noise before clearing his throat, “Yeah, I chose that one for my cat. Algernon. He’s back in London with my parents.”

“Adorable.” Lily mused to herself under her breath before letting go of his arm, “Shame it will wash away in a couple days.”

James nodded, “I know. If only my mum would let me get a tattoo then I’d get a big drawing of Algernon on my bum.”

It was probably the alcohol, but to Lily Evans the image of nineteen year old James Potter asking his mum’s permission to get a tattoo on his ass was the most hilarious thing to her and she burst out laughing.

James’ eyebrows raised to his hairline, obviously he hadn’t expected such a reaction to his sarcastic comment, “How much have you had to drink?”

“Not enough,” Lily giggled into her cup before taking another long sip. She was about to go for another when the cup was taken out of her hands, “Hey that’s mineeee!”

“Oh no, you’re good for the night.” James said while setting the cup out of her reach.

“No, give it to me, Potter.” She tried reaching for the cup but it was too far and she wasn’t sure her legs would work right now to get up and get it. “You don’t understaaand. I _neeeed_ it.”

“Evans, are you aware of how much of an alcoholic you’re sounding like right now?”

Lily grabbed James by the front of his shirt and pulled him close enough that their noses almost brushed. “James, listen to me. I need it. If I don’t keep drinking I’m going to have to face it all and I simply _can’t_.”

This close she noticed his glasses were slightly crooked. Something changed in his hazel eyes as his eyebrows furrowed. 

He spoke in a whisper, “What are you afraid of facing?”

Lily’s lip wobbled. She could feel the dam breaking. She could feel the flood of emotions ready to burst out of her. She was going to burst into tears any second now.

But she didn’t.

What she did instead was turn away from James and puke right on to the floor.

And that’s when the night turned into a blur.

* * *

Lily didn't dream that night. When she woke up the next morning, (on her own bed, thank God) she felt like she was trapped in a cage. She didn't remember anything that happened last night after she threw up, but the thing that she _wanted_ to forget… It had been engraved in her mind, replaying over and over again.

Lily had briefly checked her phone but quickly tossed it aside after seeing all the missed calls and texts from Emmeline. She hated herself for it but she did it anyway.

She walked into the kitchen expecting the worst. 

All she found was Mary sitting with a pink blanket around her shoulders and a mug of coffee on her hand. She was saying something to her phone in Cantonese, probably to her mum or something, but stopped when she saw Lily. Mary sent the audio and dropped her phone on the table. She bit her lip and nobody said anything for a moment. 

“Coffee?”

Lily gave a sigh of relief. “Yes, please.”

Mary got her one of Lily’s special mugs–it had Chandler dancing on the sides with “could this BE any more of a mug” written on it–and poured her some coffee as Lily settled across from her on the kitchen table.

There was a time when Lily couldn’t take coffee without at least three spoonfuls of sugar. That person died around the fifth month of university.

Lily reached for the black coffee and took a long sip. Mary just stared at her, waiting and waiting.

And then Mary addressed the elephant in the room. 

“Are you ready to talk about it yet?”

Lily rubbed the space between her eyebrows almost as if she could erase the memories of last night. Obviously, it didn’t work.

She let out a harsh breath and buried her face in her hands. “Oh Mary. What the fuck did I do?”

“Oh babes.” There was some rumbling as Mary rushed to sit next to Lily and hug her. Lily buried her face in her shoulder easily. “I’m sure if you talk about it you can work it out. She took you by surprise it’s alright to change your answer–”

“But that’s the thing!” Lily sniffed. She was trying so hard to keep the tears at bay and she was barely succeeding, “I don’t want to change my answer. It’s horrible and I hate that I hurt her but…I can’t marry her, Mary. And I don’t even understand _why_ so how can I even start to explain that to her?”

Mary gave her a sympathetic smile and rubbed Lily’s shoulder, “You know you have to though, right? She deserves that.”

“I know, I know. I just left her there. God, I fucked up. She just looked so _crestfallen_ and I couldn’t-- I just _can’t._ ”

“Shhh, shhh. It’s okay.” Lily covered her face again as she tried to contain the sobs that were threatening to burst. “How about we finish our coffee, watch some Friends or Community or whatever you feel like. Then after you feel more like yourself again and look less like someone who just crawled out of a grave,” Lily gave a small smile, “we can order some food and talk about it. Does that sound alright?”

“Yes. Thank you.” She pulled Mary into a hug, feeling more grateful than ever. “Also thank you for taking care of me last night and getting me into my bed.”

“Um…that wasn’t me.”

They broke apart so Lily could raise her eyebrows at her, “Wait, _what?”_

Mary shrugged, “It was James. He stayed with you while you threw up in the bathroom and I cleaned up the mess you left on the floor.” Lily pulled a face just at the thought. “He then made sure you were in your bed. Locked the door so no one could come in while you slept and everything.”

Lily almost scoffed. “ _Potter_ did that? Really?”

“Yup.”

Lily cocked her head in confusion. She didn’t know he had that consideration in him. Especially for her, someone who he was barely friends with. “Huh.”

Mary gave one last shrug and grabbed both their mugs to take to the sofa. The house was still a mess from the party but Mary had done the very smart, and not at all stupid, decision to just toss the mess to the corners to be dealt with when they were both feeling less hungover.

They put on a random Friends episode on the telly and didn’t speak again.

Lily tried to let herself just enjoy the plot but last night kept coming back to haunt her. She couldn’t take Emmeline’s face out of her mind. Her beautiful, kind, _perfect_ face all contorted in pain. And all because of _her_ and her strange, fucked up reasoning.

It was the only thing in her mind. Even after ten episodes of Friends, a whole season of Community and cups of tea that Mary made her. Emmeline’s face had been the only thing Lily could see. And she still didn’t know. She still did not feel like Emmeline was _it_. Honestly, Lily didn’t even know why she had hoped she would be able to fix this with the right answer. Her answer would always be wrong, no matter how sweetly she’d try to sugarcoat it. There was no sugarcoating something like _this_. 

How to nicely tell someone they’re simply not the love of your life?

Lily found herself suddenly crying at a funny joke that once made her laugh. Her comfort shows were supposed to give her _comfort_ , but now she was just crying uncontrollably. And then she cried and cried and Mary let her lay her head down in her lap, Mary softly caressed her hair, Mary put a warm blanket over her and even after Mary had done all those things, Lily’s tears were still silently drowning her cheeks. How could anyone ever fuck up like this? How could anyone so casually lose the person they loved so much? Lily didn’t know and _she_ was the mentioned ‘anyone’.

Emmeline would find someone else. She would. Lily didn’t have to question that. The only thing that she did question was if that applied to her as well. 

Emmeline was bright shades of blue. She was like those tender ocean waves and she had this light within her and around her that timelessly illuminated her beautiful heart. Honestly, Lily knew Emmeline, just Emmeline with all her quirks and smiles and her incessant fashion tips and her ocean blue eyes... She would be enough for anyone. So why wasn’t she enough for Lily?

Lily was, in many ways she thought, a burning fire. A time bomb. She wore her heart on her sleeve and it was treacherous. She couldn’t control her heart or what she felt. Now it became clear: There was never enough caution when it came to time bombs. At a certain point, they were bound to explode, sooner or later. But Emmeline made her better. Emmeline stayed. 

And now Lily didn’t know what to do anymore. Who was she without Emmeline? And would she ever find someone else who would willingly ignore the clock and stay with her like Emmeline did?

Right now that possibility seemed so unattainable.


End file.
